Only a small fraction of the six million Pakistanis desperate for food and clean water have received any help as the United Nations battled donor fatigue and appealed urgently today for more funds.
With hundreds of villages marooned and highways and bridges cut in half by swollen rivers, food rations and access to clean water have only been provided to around 500,000 million flood survivors, the UN said.
The United Nations has warned that up to 3.5 million children could be in danger of contracting deadly diseases carried through contaminated water and insects in a crisis that has disrupted the lives of at least a tenth of Pakistan's 170 million people.
"We have a country which has endemic watery diarrhoea, endemic cholera, endemic upper respiratory infections and we have the conditions for much much expanded problems," UNICEF Regional Director for South Asia Daniel Toole told a news conference.
"We cannot spend pledges. We cannot buy purification tablets, we cannot support Pakistan with pledges. I urge the international community to urgently change pledges into cheques."
Up to 1,600 people have been killed and two million made homeless in Pakistan's worst floods in decades. The United Nations has reported the first case of cholera, but only a third of the $459 million (€358 million) aid needed for initial relief has arrived.
"Only a limited proportion of food and water needs have been met. One of the major reasons for this is funding," UN spokesman Maurizio Giuliano said, adding the flood's slower unraveling compared to earthquakes and Tsunamis had dampened donor response.
"Floods do not come in 30 seconds ... but the humanitarian needs are greater than in Haiti."
Public anger has grown in the two weeks of floods, highlighting potential political troubles for President Asif Ali Zardari's unpopular government which is a major US ally in the war against Islamist militancy.
The World Bank will release $900 million (€702 million) to help fund relief efforts. Funds will come through reprogramming of planned projects and reallocation of undisbursed funds, but it did not say how it would be used to aid victims.
Some Pakistani flood victims blocked highways to demand government help and villagers clashed with baton-wielding police today after opposition leader Nawaz Sharif tried to distribute relief in Sindh.
The damage and cost of recovery could shave more than one percentage point off economic growth, analysts say. Pakistan's High Commissioner to Britain, Wajid Shamsul Hasan, said the cost of rebuilding could be more than $10 to $15 billion.
Islamic charities, some linked to militant groups, have stepped in to give aid to victims, possibly gaining supporters.
Pakistan foreign minister Shah Mehmood Qureshi said it was dangerous to let the Islamists fill the vacuum.
"If a person is hungry, if a person is thirsty and you provide water, he'll not ask whether you are a moderate or an extremist," Mr Qureshi told the British Broadcasting Corporation.
"He'll grab water from you and save himself and his children who were starved. So you have to be aware of this challenge."
US ambassador to Pakistan Anne Patterson played down concerns about the involvement of charities linked to Islamist militants in relief activities as "exaggerated".
Victims are relying mostly on the military, the most powerful institution in Pakistan, and foreign aid agencies for help.
Nevertheless, a military coup is considered unlikely. The army's priority is fighting Taliban insurgents, and seizing power during a disaster would make no sense, analysts say.
Reuters